The Wooden doll

Long time ago, there were four friends who were in different professions but all of them worked together. One was a carpenter, the other was a tailor, the third was a goldsmith, and the last one was a Brahmin.

Image source – Panchtantra

They didn’t had much income in their own village so one day, they decided to go together to nearby village in search of better jobs. They carried their tools along with them. They walked all day and still couldn’t reach the village. They entered a forest and as it was getting dark they decided to take rest under a tree.

Fearing that someone can rob them if they all went to sleep, they decided to take turns to stay awake and look after their belongings. First it was carpenter’s turn to stay awake and guard their belongings. He had nothing to do so he took out his tools from his bag and thought of carving a lovely doll. He started his job and ended with a beautiful wooden doll with lovely black eyes, and long black hair. He named her Roopmati. After him tailor woke up to do his duty.

Seeing the doll Tailor thought “Let me dress her up with a costly sari.” So he took out a small but beautiful cloth from his belongings and made a sari for her and so now Roopmati wore a lovely red sari and she was looking pretty! And then he went back to sleep and the goldsmith woke up.

Image source – Panchtantra

Now it was goldsmith turn to do something so he thought “Let me adorn her with costly jewels, she will look prettier.” He sat down & designed few jewelry for her. Finally she was adorned with precious jewels and diamonds.

She wore a diamond earring and a lovely long necklace. He too finished his work & went to sleep. Finally it was Brahmin’s turn to guard everyone’s stuff. Seeing this beautiful doll Brahmin thought, “Let me put some life into this doll and make her alive”. And so he chanted mantras and Roopmati came to life and started walking. She was so beautiful that he observed her for the rest of the night.

In morning, when the rest of his three friends got up they all saw their creations come to life and later all the four friends started fighting for Roopmati’s hand. Their quarrel grew so much that they had take matters to the village headman to solve their quarrel.

Headman listened to the whole story and then said “Carpenter and Brahmin gave life to the doll, so they are like a father to her. The tailor has dressed the doll with clothes which was in respect of womanhood, so he is her brother. Only Goldsmith can marry the doll because he has given her such costly jewelry to admire her beauty as that only a husband would do.”

Everyone agreed to his decision and it was decided that the goldsmith should marry Roopmati . So she finally got married with a great pomp and splendor to the goldsmith. All the others went back home disappointed but happy for they understood the value of relationships.